Could you introduce yourself and describe your position and team?
I have worked for Auralog since 1999, and I manage three key teams that are integral to the development and delivery of our client experience. About three years ago, I reorganized our teams into different specialty areas in order to maximize our teams’ talents.
First we have the Technical Team, which is in charge of the technological aspects of all R&D (testing, requirements gathering, etc.), but particularly the architecture of our solutions. The members of this team are mostly software designers and senior development engineers.
Next there is the Business Team, which is in charge of the heart of our software—everything that makes it run smoothly. The members of this team work internally with the Marketing and Editorial Departments, as well as with the Client Services Department. In cooperation with these departments, the team defines use-cases in order to ensure coherence between the new options requested by the client and those that already exist.
Finally, there is the Projects Team, which includes usability and user interface design. This team defines how the options developed by the Business Team are displayed on-screen. This is how our product will appear to the end user.
What can you tell us about speech recognition?
Historically, speech recognition has been at the core of our program. We were pioneers in applying speech recognition technology to language-learning software.
It’s a technology that we are constantly improving. In R&D, our role is to develop anf innovate technology that is adapts to each language program we offer.
In your opinion, what makes TELL ME MORE unique? What makes it stand out from the crowd?
The product passes through different teams each with their own unique expertise. The R&D Software Team’s main contribution is our constant innovation and work to push technology to its limits. Our team uses only the best in terms of technology. We are constantly trying to push the envelope in terms of speech recognition, online applications, etc., while keeping in line with the standards in our field. In this light, we have a partnership with Microsoft that allows us to keep our finger on the pulse of new technologies, and to stay informed of their vision of the future, so that we don’t fall behind. We are careful to keep abreast of any new developments in our field and to fully utilize the technology that is available to us.
